In the sport of paintball opposing individuals or teams seeks to score points either through hitting a competitor with a “shot” or by hitting targets. Players may also act out military-style fantasy games in a safe manner through the sport of paintball.
Paintball guns typically include a semi-automatic loading system comprising a loading chamber on the top of the gun into which paintballs are poured, and which operates as a reservoir for ammunition. Individual paintballs drop through a hole in the bottom of the reservoir and through a feed tube connected to the firing chamber of the gun. A burst of compressed air fires the paintball by ejecting it through the gun barrel. As each paintball is fired, a new paintball drops into the firing chamber. For proper operation, in order to allow paintballs to be fired as quickly as the trigger can be pulled, the feed tube should always be full of paintballs, however the paintballs in the reservoir can jam at the entrance to the feed tube, such that no paintballs enter the feed tube.
Considerable prior art has been directed to either agitating the paintballs at the entrance to the feed tube in order to clear jams. U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,454 to Bell et al. discloses a sensor that detects a void in the feed tube, indicating a jam at the entrance. When such a void is detected, an agitator is activated to shift the paintballs at the entrance and free the jam. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,415,781 and 6,418,919 to Perrone disclose similar jam detecting and clearing devices.
Other prior art discloses carousel or disc type mechanisms for positively feeding individual paint balls into the entrance to the firing chamber. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,621 to Guthrie, U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,019 to Kotsiopoulis, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,933 to Christopher et al.